September 11, 2023, was the day before the TKO merger became final. The next day, Paul Levesque and Nick Khan were set to be among executives celebrating the $21 billion combination of WWE and UFC as they rang the trading day’s opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange.
But Levesque was also dreading what was to come in the morning.
“DDay tomorrow,” he texted to Khan. “[E]xpecting the worst.”
The messages — recently disclosed in the ongoing lawsuit over the merger — demonstrate his concern was related to friction with Vince McMahon, his father-in-law, whose duties as WWE head of creative he assumed a year prior. Levesque’s messages show him looking to Khan, his immediate superior, for support as McMahon sought greater involvement in the creative process.
Khan wrote back to Levesque’s “DDay” comment with words he later deleted. In legal filings, Khan claims he doesn’t remember the content of any of the deleted messages noted throughout this report.
| Monday, September 11, 2023 | |
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2:10 PM Paul Levesque: How’s it going so far ? Man, I’m wound tight today …. DDay tomorrow, expecting the worst |
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2:12 PM Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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2:13 PM Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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2:14 PM Paul Levesque: Call u shortly? Or no time? |
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2:17 PM Nick Khan: 230 EC. Before good. After tricky! |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
(“EC” above seems to refer to an executive committee meeting with WWE’s corporate leadership that Khan participated in that day.)
The text messages sent over WhatsApp were disclosed last week in exhibits filed in the lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery in which shareholders allege McMahon and certain other board members, including Khan and Levesque, unfairly steered the 2023 WWE-UFC merger to assure McMahon’s personal survival in the new company, despite the sexual misconduct allegations against him.
WWE’s last night as a standalone company
Later that day, Levesque relayed to Khan that McMahon wanted to meet about talent releases that would be happening at the same time as staff members were being downsized. The staff lay-offs were among the cost-cutting synergies the merger promised.
Levesque wrote to Khan: “While I’m SURE you like to be done with this shit for today ….. Please let me know if you speak to AE,” the initials of TKO CEO Ari Emanuel, who was about to take on oversight of WWE alongside his existing duties overseeing UFC.
It’s unclear if phone calls or other communications happened between these messages.
An inquiry from POST Wrestling to representatives for WWE and TKO seeking comment for this story on behalf of Levesque, Khan, and Emanuel was not returned. Representatives for McMahon also did not return our request for comment, which included a question about the extent of McMahon’s actual desire to be involved in creative in 2023.
Just nine months earlier, McMahon seized his controlling voting power, returned to WWE, and put it up for sale, ending the brief retirement he announced in the wake of headlines about sexual misconduct allegations and previously undisclosed NDA payments. Since his return and especially after the TKO merger was agreed to in April 2023, multiple outlets reported on McMahon’s renewed influence over WWE’s creative process.
| Monday, September 11, 2023 | |
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5:29 PM Paul Levesque: Vkm. Btw I need to meet with all of U tomorrow re talent releases which coincides with all corporate releases Thx |
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5:33 PM Paul Levesque: I know you are swamped. Let me know if you have a minute |
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7:54 PM Paul Levesque: While I’m SURE you like to be done with this shit for today ….. Please let me know if you speak to AE |
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10:58 PM Nick Khan: I will. I’ll get him early. We missed each other tonight. |
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11:05 PM Paul Levesque: K |
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11:06 PM Paul Levesque: U ok? |
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11:11 PM Nick Khan: Yes sir! How you ? |
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11:12 PM Paul Levesque: Good anxious for tomorrow and beyond …… |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
At the time of these messages, Fightful reported that McMahon and Levesque were both involved with late changes to the Monday, September 11, 2023, episode of Raw. McMahon was not personally at the event, as he had been on other occasions that year. Memorably, those other occasions included the Raw after WrestleMania in 2023, when he made wide-ranging changes to the show in-person.
A text message exchange between Khan and McMahon from February 2023, which POST Wrestling included in a previous report, is consistent with separate reporting that McMahon pushed for Roman Reigns’ win over Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania in April 2023, delaying Rhodes’ eventual title win and “finishing his story” until the following year’s WrestleMania. Reportedly, that’s a decision Levesque eventually agreed to.
That instance suggests Khan sometimes acted on both sides as an intermediary between McMahon and Levesque on creative matters.
Executives downplayed McMahon’s role in creative
Meanwhile, in public, McMahon’s involvement in creative was downplayed by all involved. Levesque was looked at by many fans as a major improvement to the creative process, and a resurgence in WWE’s popularity among fans since McMahon’s July 2022 retirement was well-substantiated by increases in attendance and TV ratings.
Who controlled creative is not a subject of the shareholder lawsuit. However, as a publicly traded company with major media rights renewals approaching, who was actually directing WWE’s content was a legitimate investor concern — particularly given how the executives’ public statements conflict with these private conversations.
The newly-public text message exhibits are intended to support the plaintiffs’ motion asking the court to draw adverse inferences at trial against the defendant board members because of their deletion of Signal messages and other evidence. The defendants respond that they didn’t use Signal to discuss the merger, and any records related to that subject were preserved. The plaintiffs, however, also point to Khan’s selective deletion of various text messages he sent, including those within message threads that serve as the basis for this report. The court has not yet ruled on the motion.
| Tuesday, February 28, 2023 | |
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7:21 PM Vince McMahon: Text from me to Paul and Bruce:
“Hey guys just double checking. Does Roman and Cody know the new creative re WM and next year ?” Bruce : “Not to my knowledge. Me to Paul: “ Paul have U “? |
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7:37 PM Nick Khan: Langis |
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7:41 PM Vince McMahon: What in the blue hell is “Langis” lol |
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7:41 PM Nick Khan: Read it backwards! |
POST Wrestling’s visual representation of text messages between McMahon and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
In the February 2023 text exchange between Khan and McMahon, the WWE President appeared to urge McMahon to continue the conversation on Signal. Plaintiffs allege this reflected a broader pattern by Khan in particular, of moving communications to the app, where messages were set to delete automatically, despite legal hold notices from WWE’s lawyers directing Khan and others to preserve certain written communications in anticipation of litigation arising from the merger or the scandal surrounding McMahon.
When Khan was asked on CNBC in late March 2023 whether McMahon was becoming more involved in creative, he answered, “‘No’ is the answer to that,” a denial that’s difficult to reconcile with what McMahon texted Khan a month earlier.
Days later, just after WrestleMania, when the merger was announced, McMahon appeared on the same network, sitting alongside Emanuel, and told viewers he would be involved “on a higher level” in creative but that he wouldn’t be “in the weeds” anymore. Hours later, he was reportedly at Raw, exercising the kind of control he had for decades before his retirement.
In August 2023, when asked at the press conference following that year’s Summerslam, Levesque framed McMahon’s contributions to the creative process as advisory, despite reports at the time that McMahon had become more involved in directing creative.
Levesque praised McMahon’s knowledge of the business and emphasized the value of his advice, then said, “But is he [involved in creative] day-to-day? No. Is he in it all the time? No.”
“D-Day”
Before the market opened on the morning the TKO deal officially closed, Levesque wrote again to Khan, this time expressing his appreciation. Khan and Levesque credited each other for their current positions in WWE.
This is the view outside the New York Stock Exchange this AM.
Massive day for UFC, WWE and Endeavor.
TKO Group Holdings will trade on the New York Stock Exchange as of today under the ticker symbol TKO. The deal is official. pic.twitter.com/ugmLXfEK3Y
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 12, 2023
“Thank you for getting us here … if it wasn’t for you , I would have been gone a long time ago,” Levesque wrote.
Levesque didn’t explain what he meant, but recent history offered reasons why he might’ve seen his role as precarious.
Levesque’s NXT had lost its head-to-head TV ratings competition with AEW. NXT moved to a different night, and Levesque was no longer overseeing it. By early 2022, many of his allies had been fired. A heart condition required surgery in 2021, ending his in-ring career. McMahon’s first exit in July 2022 opened the door for Levesque to enter a more prominent leadership role than ever.
| Tuesday, September 12, 2023 | |
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6:57 AM: Paul Levesque: Nick , just wanted to take a moment before all the craziness today to say THANK YOU !!!!! Thank you for getting us here … if it wasn’t for you , I would have been gone a long time ago. I appreciate you and all you have done and gone thru …. And I appreciate our friendship… It means the world to me Thank you and Congratulations |
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6:58 AM: Nick Khan: You are my guy. You got me here. I want us to do this for 20 years and call it a day. I appreciate and admire you. |
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7:09 AM: Nick Khan: [Khan sent an image of the NYSE building with giant WWE and UFC belts on display] |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
A few minutes later, Levesque relayed a message to Khan, possibly from a colleague or assistant. McMahon wanted a meeting later in the day with Levesque and “Bruce and Ed,” possibly referring to senior creative team members Bruce Prichard and Ed Koskey. Khan responded with something that, again, he chose to go back and delete.
| Tuesday, September 12, 2023 | |
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7:13 AM: Paul Levesque: Just fyi
Morning! VKM looking to set an in person meeting for today at 4pm with you, Bruce and Ed regarding Talent Policies |
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7:14 AM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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7:18 AM: Paul Levesque: Done |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
Soon after the merger closed, with Endeavor leaders Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro overseeing WWE, both media reports and the programming itself suggested Levesque, rather than McMahon, was in clearer control of Raw and SmackDown. PWInsider reported in early October that Levesque was “knighted” by the Endeavor/TKO leaders.
A week later, Sports Illustrated told readers that Levesque was now in “full control of WWE creative.” Citing multiple sources in WWE and UFC, the outlet pointed to Emanuel’s belief in a strict division of responsibilities. Levesque would independently oversee creative. McMahon, still TKO Executive Chairman — a role he was guaranteed for life or until he resigned — would take the lead on WWE’s important media rights renewals.
Given the track record, though, many fans and talent remained skeptical McMahon would actually stay out of the role he reveled in for decades.
Vince tries again in December 2023
Two months later, on a Saturday night, December 9, 2023, Levesque texted Khan.
“Was just told by security that VKM is coming to Cleveland TV Monday. What’s that about ??????” he typed, referring to the Monday Night Raw taping coming up in two days.
Khan immediately wrote back — messages, again, he later deleted.
| Saturday, December 9, 2023 | |
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8:17 PM: Paul Levesque: Was just told by security that VKM is coming to Cleveland TV Monday. What’s that about ?????? |
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8:18 PM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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8:18 PM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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8:18 PM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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8:43 PM: Paul Levesque: Is he in nyc yet …… When is their meeting? |
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8:44 PM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
The next day, the record shows Levesque and Khan trying to reach Emanuel, with Levesque apparently speaking with Emanuel.
“Tried you back with him. Call me,” Khan wrote to Levesque at 11:48 AM, “him” possibly referring to Emanuel, given what follows.
| Sunday, December 10, 2023 | |
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1:33 PM: Paul Levesque: the more I think about it the more I’m kinda disappointed in that Ari convo…… Seems like we are in the same place , “I’m gonna tell him to stay out of it or else” that’s way different than “I’m telling him he’s done ….. it’s over” Kicking the can down the road |
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1:36 PM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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1:44 PM: Paul Levesque: What do u think about me hitting Shapiro to get his take and let him push or better direct to Ari? |
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1:44 PM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
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1:44 PM: Nick Khan: [Deleted by the sender] |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
Levesque raises the idea of going to TKO President and COO Mark Shapiro about the issue. Khan again responds with something he deleted later.
Whatever transpired from there, Levesque wasn’t satisfied with.
Among the questions POST Wrestling raised to TKO and WWE representatives, which they did not respond to, were queries about what Emanuel’s point of view was on the friction between Levesque and McMahon. We also asked for clarification about what steps Khan took to resolve this matter, as his role is especially obscured given the deleted messages.
| Sunday, December 10, 2023 | |
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2:31 PM: Paul Levesque: Between you and I, It feels like they are both backtracking on the “he’s out” narrative. It’s back to the “well if he wants to go to the show now and then” and “if he gives notes and wants to have a 30min meeting now and then, ok” |
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2:39 PM: Paul Levesque: He just sent an email re script for Ari |
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2:43 PM: Nick Khan: Seems off. Lemme call him. |
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2:58 PM: Nick Khan: They know already. No need to send. |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
The public filings don’t show further messages between Levesque and Khan for the next few hours, after Khan’s “They know already. No need to send.” Any calls or messages that might’ve happened in that window — whether Khan reached Emanuel, McMahon, or both — aren’t reflected in the record.
When Levesque wrote to Khan again that evening, he moved to a different concern.
| Sunday, December 10, 2023 | |
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5:48 PM: Paul Levesque: So he’s on the AM plane ….. I just remembered punk is scheduled to be on it as well. You think that’s an issue ? |
POST Wrestling visual representation of text messages between Levesque and Khan disclosed in public court filings. Times shown in U.S. Eastern.
CM Punk, of course, had just returned to WWE for the first time since his acrimonious exit in 2014, which he followed with harsh criticism of McMahon, with whom he now shared a plane ride. As far as we know, there were no issues on the flight.
McMahon, for the second time and so far permanently, resigned a month later in January 2024, just after former employee Janel Grant filed a federal sex trafficking lawsuit against him and WWE. McMahon has had no known involvement in WWE creative since. Although McMahon’s association with WWE and family connection to Levesque may always invite some to doubt whether he’s truly out, his exit two years ago essentially rendered moot the dynamic Khan and Emanuel were evidently managing in 2023.
When Levesque was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year, toward the end of an hourlong speech, he thanked McMahon. “I love you, Vince, and thank you,” he said, while acknowledging the complicated nature of their professional and familial relationship.
